Labi Siffre - Into The Light

The Race Thing

*
Born 1911

My mother is high yaller
She could easy pass for white

But she'd walk into a room
Of strangers

And before a minute would be
Out she'd say, "I'm Black!"

So there'd be no doubt;
I'm proud of her for that

*
Q: LS, Are you black?

A: Yes (with a capital YES); but do you mean historically (awareness), ethnically (genetically race doesn't exist; we are all one), culturally (as defined by who? and in which culture?), stylistically/fashionably (is denim a racial thing?) and on and on.

Perhaps a better question is: Does my perception of "race" effect my assumptions about, opinions/expectations/perceptions of, people in matters of honor, justice, morality, decency, truthfulness, talent, potential, compassion etc? Like it does if I know they're sexuality? their gender? their nationality? their profession? All these effected by my interpretation of what (for example) "gay", "man", "English" and "artist" mean; all of this depending on which part of someone's personality, which of their behaviors I happen to be evaluating at the time. Life is complex. Big problems are caused by insisting it isn't (see: World War 2 & The War on Terror); and YES, I'm black.
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Race in a Genetic World
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Robert Mugabe & The State of Israel - Brothers in Arms

So, the murdering, despotic, anti-democratic monster, Robert Mugabe, has been replaced, temporarily as headline news by The State of Israel, which is bombing and shelling Palestinian Palestine, in this case Gaza, back to the stone age, in this case back to rubble.

Yet the media seem unable or unwilling to align The State of Israel with the despotic monster, Robert Mugabe. Not so this writer, made to appear bold by the meekness of mainstream scribes in this age where we must have acknowledged by now, thanks to David Attenborough's "Life on Earth" and Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" that everything is connected to everything else because our ecology is one and all of us creatures are related, except for intelligently designed creatures in Kansas.

But what alignment could there possibly be that equates the murdering Robert Mugabe and The State of Israel? Well, 1) the internationally despised pariah, President Mugabe, took land from the white farmer descendants of racist British colonialism and gave the land to landless black Zimbabweans. Similarly, The State of Israel, under mirror-image governments, took Palestinian land, built illegal settlements on that Palestinian land and moved Israelis into these illegal settlements. The illegal settlement building program continues.

2) The State of Israel and Robert Mugabe both kill innocent civilians; Mugabe with cholera and The State of Israel with missiles and shells and bullets.

Incidentally what is a guilty civilian? Possible answer: a civilian who votes for his or her military to bomb and shell and missile innocent civilians; or a civilian who votes for his or her government to build illegal settlements on someone else's land.

And writing of votes, salvation through democracy is currently high on the must do list to win favor with western democracies (unless you're Saudi Arabia) and so we rightly despise that evil monster, Robert Mugabe, for grinding democracy into the dust in Zimbabwe, his own country,  the country he has made wretched and ruined by refusing to bow to the democratic wishes of the people.

Perhaps he was influenced by the USA and the EU who, with Israel, put every obstacle in the path of, and attempted to bankrupt the democratically elected government of Palestinian Palestine, Hamas, by withdrawing the finance with which the former Palestinian administration had been able to run the country's services (hospitals, schools,etc).

Clearly, when the "International Community" urged Palestinians to embrace democracy they really meant that, for Palestinians, democracy means voting for anyone The State of Israel, The USA and the EU like. It would at least have been honorable to warn Palestinian voters of the punitive policies "the international community" would exercise in the event of a majority vote for Hamas.

Then 3) there is the military occupation. Israel has occupied Palestinian Palestine for forty years. The villain Mugabe has some way to go in order to catch The State of Israel up and of course he is "occupying" his own land. Then again, many Israelis believe God (yes, there he is again) says The State of Israel is doing the same thing and all they need do is remove the Palestinians. . . Which is perhaps why, the Israeli Cabinet Statement on the Road Map - (may  25th '03) states that: "As in the other mutual frameworks, the Roadmap will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians".

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Relativity (Thabo Mbeki - a 21st century Mengele)

Robert Mugabe should be seen as a "21st Century Hitler", says Joe Seoka the Bishop of Pretoria (South Africa).

Standing in the way of justice in Zimbabwe, the dictator Mugabe is responsible, said the Bishop, for the cholera deaths of 792 Zimbabweans so far recorded by the World Health Organization which warns that the total number of cases could reach 60,000 unless the epidemic is stopped. Bishop Seoka, accurately in my view, described Mr Mugabe as a "person seemingly without conscience or remorse, and a murderer".

He continued "I believe it is now an opportune moment for all the church leaders to follow the retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, to call on God to cause the removal of Mugabe from the office of the President of Zimbabwe."

Calling for the prayers to be held next Tuesday he continued "The church in South Africa has done this before with the apartheid regime and there is no doubt that God will hear our prayers even today."

I wonder whether God will wait more than 40 years, as he did before intervening to remove apartheid and whether the number of needless deaths will be a criterion God will use to sanction his intervention … in which case, will Bishop Seoka call upon God to ignore the 330,000 AIDS deaths that a recent Harvard School of Public Health study blames former South African President Thabo Mbeki for, concluding that 330,000 deaths were caused by his 1999 decision to declare available drugs toxic and dangerous. The study, published on 20 October, adds that as a result of Mr Mbeki's policies, nearly 35,000 babies were born HIV-positive between 2000 and 2005.

If the despot Robert Mugabe should be seen as a "21st Century Hitler", should ex President Thabo Mbeki be seen as a 21st Century Mengele for his refusal to make available the drugs needed to save those 35,000 babies from HIV / AIDS and the retroviral drugs proven to greatly prolong the lives of HIV / AIDS sufferers because of his eccentric, insane, evil, irresponsible and/or cynical support of Beetroot as the suitable medication for HIV / AIDS? Yes, Beetroot.

I wonder that, time after time, we fail to judge responsibility for murderous crime by the number of needless, often savagely violent deaths caused ... and prefer to judge by how convenient to our personal bigotries certain deaths are.

Reason, now soundly defeated in the battle with feelings and “belief”, would judge those responsible for the deaths of (for example) 30,000 innocent civilians to be more criminal than those responsible for the deaths of 3000. I have no idea how God feels about this, but the opinion of his representatives on Earth is depressing.
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Apologies now for slavery then

talk is cheap it provides relief

for the talking head but none

to those soon to be dead

for lack of action
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My people

These days relieved i am
not to be black
it being so un-cool
them having forgot
that if you’ve got it
you don’t have to flaunt it

course honkies, who only briefly
scented cool (thru Bogart, Bacall,
Brando, McQueen and the like)
have abandoned it also, so
on reflection it ain’t just blacks;
though, to be racist,
we
really should know better
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caring

for nearly ten days now we’ve had
no water here and i’ve had to drive the
fifteen miles to the supermarket to
carry five litre bottles of the stuff of
life back home in the van

the experience has really made me
understand what it must be like to be
an Asian or African woman in India or
the Sudan or someplace like that and have
to carry empty containers eight dusty bare
footed miles there and then carry the full
ones eight weighed down dusty miles back

like i said these past few days have been
an eye opener giving me a real understanding
of how they must feel, and a connection with
them as well somehow; but i still wonder why
they don’t build their villages closer to the water
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White Slavers In Dreadlocks

Beenie Man and Buju Banton, Sizzla, Tok and Elephant man,
Vybz Kartel and Bounty Killer, Capleton - mon,
Why you all degrade and weaken the black nation
‘Stead of trying to save 'em from hatred and discrimination?

Cutting edge, brave and bold you claim, but lame
Your salvation answer be to teach black children hatred
And discrimination of others; that's no way to raise
Themselves black sisters and brothers

Hatred and discrimination, they the tools the white man
Used to make us slaves
Clever of you to learn the white slaver’s ways;
And it make you lot o money of course
That way always does (no shock)
You learned that lesson well
(From Rupert Murdoch?)

Black brothers no, methinks not.
You just another jancro flock
Of slack White Slavers In Dreadlocks.

You preach hatred and discrimination of me,
A gay, black man who wrote
“Something Inside So Strong” a song of defiance
And self-affirmation for black people, red people,
Gay people, disabled people, old people, women,
Children, every people suffering prejudice

Righteous, you quote your holy book like standard
'Ypocrites and fascists, and no surprise look see
As usual list selectively only the parts you need to sell
Your cowardice and bigotry; well, we shouldn’t expect
Courage from you fellas who clearly lack the balls
To follow Nelson Mandela

And no matter how high you fly you renk
Who raise yourselves by treading on others

Black brothers no, methinks not.
You just another jancro flock
Of slack White Slavers In Dreadlocks.
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Traitors to the black nation

The denigration of the female
Referred to in these verses
Is a black community rap disease

That involves, like chatroom
Pedophile wiles, the grooming
By video tuning of a generation
Of black girls eager to be women;
A rhyming scheme to persuade 'em
That all they’re for, to get to be
The main squeeze, is to give it up easy

Beaver and bubble butt to some posturing
Fake who, though black, ain’t no better flava
Than an old time white slaver

It’s a matter of role models and if all girls get
Is “good girls give it up” then gangsta sex
Rap is just another self-hate way to help
The black community self-destruct

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my mother

re-write in progress

boring old fart

i am watching will smith in the movie “i robot”
an action drama which does not present itself
as some kind of james bond flic or spoof and it
occurs to me that i am not watching a black actor
portraying a black american man
i am watching a black actor portraying
a caricature movie version of a black american man
an actor not attempting to portray reality through fiction
but an actor portraying a fiction within a fiction much like,
though not nearly as extreme, as the treatment
of jews in nazi propaganda films    i wonder

is this popular treatment merely another take
on an age old white contempt aided and abetted
by the vic timid? surely not - smith is rich enough
to say “no” if that is the criterion necessary to enable
a “no”, and i find it hard to link him with the word
“tom”, so maybe it’s me being a bof (after all, i am
nearly sixty) but i read his character like so many
portrayals of blacks in action on the hollywood stage as
“step ‘n fetchit” morphed into an exasperating and
irritating nigger who swaggers and wisecracks
without end  even at moments of great danger
reducing all human emotion to the level of banal
numero uno american schlop. am i right? i hope not

on the other hand, the bring it on, kick ass
swaggering ‘n smirking attitude displayed by g.w.bush in
that other hollywood production “the american war against
terror” is an equally demeaning characterization of
white america – is it not?

in the early eighties when i was living in los angeles i
remember saying to a british friend “we’re all in a movie,
but in LA everybody knows they’re in a movie” and i admired
them for that view of the cosmic joke but on reflection
i was much younger then and anyway, the best jokes,
though they raise a protective smile, are not funny

perspective

have just been fortunate enough to see “Vespers”
by Ulysses Dove
with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre

i suggest the black rap 'n hip-hop communities
access this ballet; it might help them in a much
needed review of their definition of women

from an absent friend

to be and not to see
that is the answer of choice to the question
of your late invitation to the feast

i can only suggest that when the peas
pass nearby you discard that fork
and use the ladle and your shoulders
(in a dignified manner of course)

and at the same time in whatever space
you find grow your own the lord smiling
of the manor is not necessarily your friend
though he be painted new (regularly) in any
event his lord is banked elsewhere
nestled in a web of minted moonlight
hauling on the strings he knows you not
and caring for you less cares you much

at this late hour i’m told my words should be
uplifting (as an ageing playboys' corset?) so
as not to rock the boat i say "uplift yourselves"
and now for those who lack bootstraps
or boots or feet (for example
in afghanistan cambodia or mozambique)
i am your friend

but frightened lazy useless
far away as friends so often are and yet
my words are stronger than my arms and i
am stronger than my fear i have surprised
myself in this and offer this surprise to you

the words they give are what is best
for them to have your heart revere
search out the words they hide therein
lies your salvation and their fear